Is a less violent, more PC Watership Down a good idea?

The BBC is creating a new version of the much-loved rabbit saga Watership Down, but with less violence and a greater emphasis on female characters.

The four-part animation, which features an all-star cast including John Boyega, James McAvoy, Ben Kingsley and Gemma Arterton, is based on Richard Adams's 1972 book about a group of rabbits searching for a new home, encountering dangers and temptations along the way.

It was turned into an animated film in 1978, directed by Martin Rosen and featuring the voices of John Hurt, Ralph Richardson, Denholm Elliott and Richard Briers. The film was given a U certificate, but shocked some viewers with its disturbing episodes, such as rabbits being poisoned and choked in snares and scenes of the animals fighting to the death.

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A recent TV showing of the film on Easter Sunday received a "flurry of online complaints" from parents whose children were upset by the violent and bloody scenes, reports the Daily Mail.

The new version, co-produced with Netflix, will be less "brutal and scarring", reports the Daily Telegraph.

Rory Aitken, the executive producer of the mini-series, told the newspaper: "The thing about Watership Down is that it's an epic adventure story… not a terrifying, brutal story. I think that in a way we want to restore the reputation that the book should have as one of the great adventure stories of all time."

He continued: "While we won't shy away from the darkness in the book, visually it won't be as brutal and scarring." The idea was "to bring it to a wider family audience", he added.

However, The Guardian television critic Julia Raeside told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the brutality of the original was something producers shouldn't change.

The violence was "pretty horrific" and "the brutality of nature was there in all its bloody glory", she said, but: "Everyone should have something in their childhood that unsettled them and made them think about things differently."

As for the new version, it sounded "a lot safer and more PC for a modern audience", she said.

The series won't just tone down the on-screen violence, it will also give "a more prominent and heroic role to the female characters", reports The Guardian. Tom Bidwell's script gives more time to female rabbit characters Clover, played by Arterton, Strawberry, played by Olivia Colman, and Hyzenthlay, played by Anne-Marie Duff.

Co-producer Josh Varney said: "Tom Bidwell has done a brilliant job of being able to weave in more female characters, which I think the audience will find exciting."